A cotton harvester is a vehicle driven across a field of cotton that picks the cotton and stores it for baling. Cotton harvesters generally include a header, a basket assembly and a cab. An operator in the cab operates the header to engage the cotton in the field. As the vehicle is driven at a slow speed (e.g., less than 4 miles per hour), the header picks the cotton, cleans the cotton, lubricates the cotton if necessary and propels the cotton up a duct into the basket assembly. The basket assembly holds the cotton until the cotton can be unloaded into a separate storage and/or packaging vehicle.
Frequent unloading of the basket assembly can waste valuable harvest time during operation of the cotton harvester. Accordingly, several modifications have been made to improve the amount of cotton that can be stored in the basket assembly. For example, the basket assembly has been made larger. The basket assembly also has been equipped with a telescoping structure to allow the operator to raise the basket assembly during harvesting to increase the total basket assembly capacity and lower the basket assembly during transportation. Also, compacting structures have been implemented in the basket assembly to compress the cotton so that more cotton can be held in the basket assembly.
Cotton is different than other harvested crops (e.g., corn, wheat, soybeans) in that it can be compacted to significantly increase the amount of cotton that can be stored in a defined space. Thus, the amount of cotton that the basket assembly can store is typically defined by the degree to which the cotton can be compacted. In turn, the degree to which the cotton can be compacted is typically defined by the upper limit of the force exerted by the compacting structure on the harvested cotton (and, of course, the equal and opposite force exerted by the harvested cotton on the compacting structure).
The compactability of cotton provides unique challenges for the operator when the operator attempts to determine if the basket assembly needs to be emptied (i.e., is "full"). The operator cannot determine from a simple glance at the basket assembly if the basket assembly is full because the degree of compaction cannot be accurately determined by looking at the basket assembly. Even to the extent that the degree of compaction can be determined by looking at the basket assembly, the operator is typically focused on operating the vehicle and cannot be disturbed by continually viewing the basket assembly. As a result, the operator must empty the basket assembly before it has reached its full or desired capacity, creating additional delays in harvesting time.
One proposed solution is an apparatus for compacting cotton in a basket assembly having an alarm. This apparatus has a manual mode of compaction and an automatic mode of compaction. During the automatic mode, hydraulically-driven augers located at the top of the basket assembly are continuously in motion, even when the augers are clear of any harvested cotton. A transducer is located in the hydraulic conduit of the augers to sense the hydraulic pressure exerted by the augers on the harvested cotton. As the level of harvested cotton increases, the cotton gathers around the augers and exerts a force thereon, causing an increase in the hydraulic pressure in the hydraulic conduit. When the pressure reaches a predefined threshold, a detection circuit triggers an alarm. This alarm indicates to the operator that the harvested cotton has reached the height of the augers in the basket assembly.
This solution merely indicates to the operator that the cotton has reached the height of the augers. The operator receives no indication of how compacted the harvested cotton is, and therefore receives no indication of how full the basket assembly is. Thus, what is needed is a cotton harvester with an improved basket level indicator that provides a clear indication to the operator when the harvested cotton in the basket assembly of the cotton harvester has reached a predetermined level.